If you’re practising as a nurse or midwife in the UK, you’ll know about nursing revalidation. Also known as NMC revalidation, it is the requirement set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
At Pulse, we provide you with a full revalidation service when we are your main employer, which includes the completion of your reflective discussion and confirmation. For nurses cleared to work with us but where we are not your main employer, we can also provide you with valuable advice and information relating to the practice hours and CPD you have undertaken with Pulse for your revalidation period.
In this guide, we’ve outlined everything you’ll need to know about revalidation, including the stages of the process and its requirements, along with answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Search our nursing jobsNMC revalidation is a mandatory UK process that maintains your registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It helps to ensure good practice among nurses, upholding high standards and assuring the public of a commitment to quality within the nursing profession. All registrants are required to revalidate every three years.
Revalidation in nursing also gives you the chance to devote time to considering how you might like to develop, either within your current role or into a new area of practice. NMC revalidation isn’t an assessment of your ability to practise nursing or progress in your role. Rather, it helps you to be mindful of your purpose and think about how your work matters to your patients. It also encourages active discussion and knowledge sharing with fellow professionals.
Finally, revalidation with the NMC helps you to keep The Code of Professional Conduct in the forefront of your mind, bring it to life and apply it to your everyday practice. It can grow your confidence and faith in knowing you are abiding by professional standards, as well as seeing in real-world terms why those standards are important.
There are formal requirements for revalidation, which we have detailed below.
Every three years, nursing revalidation will require you to have undertaken a minimum of 450 practice hours since your last revalidation or since you joined the register. These hours will need to relate to your current scope of practice and could include caring for patients, managing teams, helping to run services, or training and education.
You can use a practice hours log template to record your hours and provide the necessary evidence. When maintaining a record of the practice hours you have completed, it’s important to include:
If you are revalidating as a nurse and midwife, you will have to undertake 900 hours of practice, 450 hours for each registration.
In between each revalidation, you are also required to have completed at least 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD), relevant to your practice. 20 of these hours need to be participatory learning.
The purpose of undertaking and logging CPD hours includes:
Keeping detailed CPD records will serve as your evidence of completing the 35 hours. We recommend using the NMC CPD log template to do so. An accurate and verifiable record of your CPD activities will include:
Read more about CPD and its requirements along with information about how Pulse can provide evidence of any CPD hours that you have undertaken with us.
The five pieces of practice-related feedback needed for revalidation can be used to assess and make improvements to your practice. You will need to collect five pieces of feedback from a variety of areas during each revalidation period. The types of feedback that can be used include:
These can come from sources such as service users, students or colleagues; as verbal feedback or in a survey, report, letter or card. The NMC’s practice-related feedback log can be used to record the information.
You are required to write five reflective accounts. This is to encourage a culture of sharing, reflection and improvement among nurses. Your accounts could be around the following:
You aren’t required to submit a copy of your reflective accounts to the NMC. But you will need to retain these as a record to inform your reflective discussion and show your confirmer. The NMC reflective accounts form is a Mandatory Form and must be used.
When Pulse is your main employer, we can review your reflective accounts and provide you with any support that you need before your reflective discussion.
In your reflective discussion, you will discuss the link between The Code and your written accounts, feedback or practice experience. Here is the NMC’s reflective discussion form that you can use for your revalidation. This is also a Mandatory Document.
To meet the requirements, you need to:
If you are working with Pulse, we can undertake your reflective discussion with you.
The NMC revalidation documents include signed health and character declarations. You are declaring this for yourself and it does not need validating by another person. You need to declare whether you’ve ever had a criminal charge, conviction, discharge or caution.
You will need to have a professional indemnity arrangement to gain your revalidation in nursing. You must state whether your indemnity is through an employer, membership of a professional body or private insurance arrangements.
If you’re practicing in more than one place, you will first supply information concerning your main practice setting and then add other arrangements to cover all your practice settings.
Someone will need to look at all your information and related evidence, and act as a confirmer to verify that you have met all the requirements. You must provide their details to gain your NMC revalidation. This is on a Confirmation Form, which is also a Mandatory Document.
For nurses who work primarily through Pulse, we will be able to act as your confirmer.
Register your interest and we will be in touch to discuss your work preferences.
Nurses have to revalidate every three years. You can check your revalidation renewal date by logging into your NMC online account.
Many different events count as participatory learning, so you have various options for fulfilling this part of your nursing revalidation. Some activities count as both individual and participatory learning. Examples of participatory hours include:
Your online application for revalidation opens 60 days before your due date, so you can submit it at any time after this.
Your registration with the NMC will lapse if you miss the deadline, so you will no longer be a registered nurse and won’t be able to practise until it is renewed. In this case, you can reapply to practise, which may take up to six weeks.
The most common reason for a lapsed registration is nurses forgetting to update their contact details with the NMC. We recommend logging in and checking that your personal information is accurate.
There is no cost for revalidating with the NMC; the annual fee of £120 covers your ongoing registration and all other services.
Yes, mandatory training can form part of your required quota for revalidation in nursing, if it relates to your practice and you link it back to a relevant part of The Code.
If Pulse is your main employer, we can provide a full revalidation service, which includes the completion of your reflective discussion and confirmation. And for nurses who work with us, but where we aren’t your main employer, we can provide you with advice and information on practice hours and CPD that you have carried out with Pulse for your revalidation period.
By helping to make the process as smooth as possible, you can focus on staying inspired to do your best work and take your career to the next level.
If you are interested in joining Pulse, browse the nursing job vacancies currently available online or register your interest in working with us and a member of our team will be in touch.
Register your interest and we will be in touch to discuss your work preferences.
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